Slashdot Mirror
UN Mounts Asteroid Defense Plan Following Chelyabinsk Meteor
Philip Ross writes "Astronomers have warned that our planet is long overdue for a defense plan against catastrophic asteroid collisions. When it comes to deflecting Earth-obliterating celestial bodies, short of a superhero capable of punching the approaching rock back into outer space, there is no single force dedicated to stopping cosmic bullies from striking our little blue planet straight in the eye. That's why the United Nations said it will establish an International Asteroid Warning Group to intercept and divert dangerous asteroids."
Because nothing is as effective at deflecting tons of rock coming towards Earth at extremely high speeds as... a committee.
And here's the same tired old argument that we see when a third world country plans a satellite launch. Oh noes ... they don't have enough toilets ... and while they are sorting that, they should just sit around for the next couple of hundred years doing nothing else!
The UN does have specific hunger and poverty eradication goals and organizations that look into those issues. See these:
http://www.unicef.org/mdg/poverty.html
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/poverty.shtml
That doesn't mean the UN shouldn't have unrelated committees/arms investigating other issues and see if something can be done to address those.
I don't think a strongly worded protest/condemnation and/or sanctions will be noticed by an incoming asteroid. ;-)
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
It would be funny if this bullshit was not coming from the most powerful organisation on the planet, the US government. Recently the majority of republicans voted against ratifying this treaty. A treaty that takes poppa Bush's (bipartisan) disability act of the early 90's and promotes it as a global minimum standard with 150+ countries on board. The bat-shit crazy faction of the republicans wouldn't sign it, those miserable cunts knocked it back because of an ideological aversion to international cooperation and rationalised their actions as protecting US sovereignty - WTF the entire treaty is founded on spreading Poppa Bush's good idea to the rest of the world.
To an non-American all this is just too fucking bizzare to be real, it's just as bat-shit crazy and "mean spirited" as the nutty General in Burma who suddenly decided the entire economy should be based on the number '3', unsurprisingly the Burmese economy fell into an open sewer and drowned at that very same moment.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Reliable, visual-range detection of meteors is doubtful since they get covered by dust which can be very dark.
What's needed is a type of active radar with Doppler shift detection. You might be able to put an existing one of those on the ISS to start with, say from tech developed for fighter airplanes. Better not sink money into developing them all over again unless that is actually needed.
All rites reversed 2010
Thank you for your uninformed, knee-jerk anti-UN comment.
They did eradicate smallpox, you know.
we have preliminary numbers. Russia has been hit by potential city shattering meteorites twice in a hundred years. If the Tunguska event happened over a populated area it would no longer have been populated. If Chelyabinsk had entered at a slightly steeper angle, it would have been significantly worse. As it is, it entered at a shallow enough angle that it broke up high in the atmosphere and reducing the effect of the shock wave. We have a reasonable handle on the larger nation killing, and extinction causing, world ending variety. What we don't have is sufficient tracking data on the smaller city killers.
...an agency of the UNITED NATIONS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Health_Organization
Remember "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"? Help make it a reality again! http://soylentnews.org